iA Writerhttp://www.maclife.com/taxonomy/term/11356/all
enPrice Drop: The Weekend's Best App Deals, January 24http://www.maclife.com/article/gallery/price_drop_weekends_best_app_deals_january_24
<!--paging_filter--><p>We've got your games right here, plus we've got a super deal on one of the most popular apps for one of the most popular social-media platforms. And if you want to see the pure blood sport of grocery-list apps going at it like a knife fight in aisle six, well, then you've come to the right place. This week's Price Drop has gone Armageddonal, so strap in and start saving some money!</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/gallery/price_drop_weekends_best_app_deals_january_24#commentsGalleryadding applesAppApp Lifeapp saleApp StoreAppLifeAppscarmageddonDisneyePubfive little monkeysfrugal lifeGrocery List - Buy Me a Pie!hdiA WriterkitcameraKnockPrice DropPrince of PersiaPrince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flamepublisher star hdQuicky Shopping Listrecipe galleryrun in crowdshopping listTwittertwitterifictwitterific 5where's my mickeyworms 2 armagedoonFri, 24 Jan 2014 18:12:51 +0000J Keirn-Swanson19144 at http://www.maclife.comWriter Pro for iOS Reviewhttp://www.maclife.com/article/ipod_and_iphone/writer_pro_ios_review
<!--paging_filter--><p>When iA Writer burst onto the scene in late 2010, it was a game-changer. The first true alternative to Pages, its ultra-minimal interface introduced a new kind of word processor, one that eschewed underutilized features for a sharp focus on simplicity. Writer Pro for iOS attempts to build on that concept. With a completely new workflow designed to tightly organize your thoughts, Information Architects pushes its minimal interface to the max, but loses that trademark simplicity in the process.</p><p>Launching Writer Pro, you'll immediately notice several visual changes. For one, the interface is a lot darker; while the composing window is still white, the other screens and elements have all been given a black coat of paint, lending the interface a somewhat weightier feel. You'll be asked to import any iA Writer documents, but the names you gave them will be gone; instead, the first few lines of each file are displayed, making it somewhat tricky to find older files (though a new search field helps).</p><p><img src="/files/u338318/2014/01/wp5.png" width="620" height="465" /></p><p>Editing has been greatly enhanced, starting with the new expanded keyboard. Punctuation shortcuts are still accessible through an extra row, but swiping to the left reveals a new Syntax Control menu that helps you fine-tune your voice. Through a bit of digital magic, a series of options will filter out specific parts of speech, helping you avoid clunky structure and repetitive phrases.</p><p>But the real centerpiece of Writer Pro is its new workflow, which divides your documents into four states: Note, Write, Edit, and Read. Each division is identified by a distinct cursor color and font, but while they might look pretty — each of the three new fonts is as gorgeous as the original Nitti, and the subtle use of color really classes things up — the workflow modes don’t really add much to the experience. Files need to be manually moved through the stages, and before we committed the respective fonts and colors to memory, we had a hard time figuring out where we were in the workflow.</p><p>Ultimately, Writer Pro feels unfinished. While we enjoy its slick navigation and intuitive use of gestures (which particularly shine on the iPhone), the new workflow feels mostly useless and unnecessarily complex, especially when the main file window shows multiple versions of the same document as it moves through the various states. For $19.99, we expected a significantly better experience than iA Writer, but we actually returned to the cheaper original app to access features we needed, like emailing attachments and accessing files over Dropbox. Thankfully, it's easy to share documents between the two versions.</p><p><strong>The bottom line.</strong> Writer Pro has quality professional elements, but a half-baked, incomplete workflow undermines its simplicity and elegance.</p><fieldset class="fieldgroup group-the-bottom-line"><legend>Review Synopsis</legend><div class="field field-type-text field-field-product">
<div class="field-label"><p><strong>Product:</strong>&nbsp;<p></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
<!--paging_filter--><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/writer-pro-note-write-edit/id775737172?mt=8" target="_blank">Writer Pro 1.0</a></p> </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-company">
<div class="field-label"><p><strong>Company:</strong>&nbsp;<p></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
iA Labs </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-contact">
<div class="field-label"><p><strong>Contact:</strong>&nbsp;<p></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
<!--paging_filter--><p><a href="http://www.writer.pro" target="_blank">www.writer.pro</a></p> </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-price">
<div class="field-label"><p><strong>Price:</strong>&nbsp;<p></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
$19.99 </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-requirements">
<div class="field-label"><p><strong>Requirements:</strong>&nbsp;<p></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
<!--paging_filter--><p>iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 7.0 or later</p> </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-positives">
<div class="field-label"><p><strong>Positives:</strong>&nbsp;<p></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
<!--paging_filter--><p>Gorgeous fonts. Excellent keyboard shortcuts. Elegant interface. Powerful editing with Syntax Control.</p> </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-negatives">
<div class="field-label"><p><strong>Negatives:</strong>&nbsp;<p></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
<!--paging_filter--><p>Workflow is unnecessarily confusing. No option to export as attachment. No Dropbox syncing. Expensive for an incomplete-feeling app.</p> </div>
</div>
</div>
</fieldset>
http://www.maclife.com/article/ipod_and_iphone/writer_pro_ios_review#commentsGalleryReviewsapp store reviewsAppLifeAppsEditingiA LabsiA WriteriPod and iPhoneProductivity SoftwareSoftwareText EditingWriteWriter ProwritingiPadiPhoneiPodThu, 02 Jan 2014 19:32:16 +0000Michael Simon18970 at http://www.maclife.com5 Third-Party Apps That Work With iCloudhttp://www.maclife.com/article/gallery/5_thirdparty_apps_work_icloud
<!--paging_filter--><p>Many third-party OS X and iOS apps are iCloud-friendly. Here are a few of our favorites for iPhone and iPad that will sync your photos, documents, stickies, to-dos, and journals.&nbsp;</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/gallery/5_thirdparty_apps_work_icloud#commentsGalleryAppsDay OneiA WriteriCloudiOSMemoTodoVideo StreamiPadiPhoneiPodMacWed, 15 Aug 2012 15:11:00 +0000Cory Bohon14789 at http://www.maclife.comHow to Create a Presentation with Markdownhttp://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_create_presentation_markdown
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="http://www.maclife.com/files/u12635/mou_teaser.png" width="150" height="150" class="graphic-right" />Markdown is a lightweight markup language that you can use to create content. We've shown you before how to create your own <a href="http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_create_html_documents_using_plain_text" target="_blank">webpages</a> with it, but did you know you could make presentations, too? Forget Powerpoint and Keynote. With <a href="https://github.com/chrishulbert/MarkdownPresenter" target="_self"> Markdown Presenter</a>, you can create simple, quick presentations using just a simple text editor. Read on to find out how.</p><h3>What You’ll Need:</h3><p>&gt;&gt; A Markdown editor (<a href="http://mouapp.com/" target="_blank">Mou</a> or <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ia-writer/id439623248?mt=12" target="_blank">iA Writer</a>), or TextEdit (included on your Mac)<br />&gt;&gt; <a href="https://github.com/chrishulbert/MarkdownPresenter" target="_blank">Chris Hulbert’s Markdown Presenter</a> (free download from GitHub)</p><h3>Open and Edit</h3><p><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u12635/presenter_1a.png"><img src="/files/u12635/presenter_1a.png" width="620" height="368" class="thickbox" /></a></p><p>Once you’ve downloaded the project files, open the "presentation.md" file in your Markdown editor of choice, or TextEdit. You can delete the existing contents of this file, as we will be adding our own content. Follow the style guide below to markup your document so it looks good in the presentation view. When you are done marking up your presentation, save as a plain text file using the "presentation.md" filename.</p><p><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u12635/presenter_1.png"><img src="/files/u12635/presenter_1.png" width="620" height="323" class="thickbox" /></a></p><p><strong>Adding Headings</strong></p><p>Creating a heading is easy. Simply type the name of the heading, followed by a new line, and then type three equal signs (===) and press enter. Smaller heading titles can be added by using three dashes instead of equal signs (---). For example:</p><pre>My First Heading</pre><pre>===</pre><p><strong>Adding Bullets</strong></p><p>To add a bulleted list to your presentation slide can be done by using asterisks in place of bullets, followed by a space, and followed by the text for that bullet. For example:</p><pre>First Slide</pre><pre>=== </pre><pre>* First bullet </pre><pre>* Second bullet </pre><pre>* Third bullet </pre><p><strong>Creating a New Slide</strong></p><p>New slides are created by adding a blank line, followed by an exclamation point, followed by another blank line. For example:</p><pre>My First Slide</pre><pre>===</pre><pre>Slide 1 Contents </pre><pre><br />! </pre><pre><br />My Second Slide</pre><pre>===</pre><pre>Slide 2 Contents</pre><h3>View Presentation</h3><p>To view your Markdown-created presentation, simply double-click on the “Presenter.html” file that is in the same project files folder that you downloaded from GitHub.</p><p><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u12635/presenter_2.png"><img src="/files/u12635/presenter_2.png" width="620" height="409" class="thickbox" /></a><br />Assuming that your “Presentation.md” file is in the same folder, it will appear in your web browser of choice automatically (if not, you can drag and drop the “Presenter.html” file onto the icon of most web browsers in the Dock.</p><p>To navigate through the slides, use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard. <br /><br />You can optionally upload the presentation files to your own web server, or host them from your Dropbox account <a href="http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_host_your_website_dropbox" target="_blank">using the information provided in this article</a>.<br /><br /><br /><em>Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article's author, <a href="http://twitter.com/coryb/" target="_blank">Cory Bohon on Twitter</a>.</em></p>http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_create_presentation_markdown#commentsiA WriterkeynoteMarkdownMouPowerPointpresentationHow-TosWed, 02 May 2012 19:48:56 +0000Cory Bohon13974 at http://www.maclife.com